


The Person Who Steps In

by QueenoftheHobbits



Series: Soft Thighs Series [84]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 'bad' boy bucky, Bullying, F/M, High School AU, overweight reader, plus size reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-24 22:14:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9789362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheHobbits/pseuds/QueenoftheHobbits
Summary: High School AU: Bullying doesn’t need to be physical for it to hurt. It doesn’t need to be clever or smart. It just needs to be.





	

Bullying doesn’t need to be physical for it to hurt. It doesn’t need to be clever or smart. It just needs to be. That is something you had learnt the hard way throughout school. The bullies didn’t need to break your wrist or shove you against a locker to hurt you, they didn’t need cleverly worded insults or personal information on you to hurt you. They created your insecurities, your fears, your weakness, and then they exploited them.

School was cruel to people who were classed as different, to people who didn’t fit into that role that everyone told them they had to fit into. You didn’t fit in and it wasn’t because you did anything wrong, or acted strange. You were just fat. You didn’t understand why people felt that was a reason to treat you the way they did, not at first. At first you were adamant that there wasn’t anything wrong with you...and then they made you doubt it. Each day they called call you names, tell you you were ugly, disgusting, and worthless and each day it wore a little at that resolve until you couldn’t help but agree, no matter how much it hurt. 

With age you started pushing back. Started trying to like your body again. To like the thickness of your neck, the size of your arms, the softness of your stomach and the weight of your thighs....and at times it worked. At times that resolve, that belief that you were fine, beautiful even, managed to break through, but it was a upward battle. Every step you took forward the bullies pushed you back two and no one ever seemed to stand up for you, to disagree, to say no. So you were alone in your battle. In your belief that you weren’t what they said you were. 

The person who steps in when things get bad, when things are wrong, the person who steps in and says no is a special kind of person. The type of person that has the bravery to speak out, the will to speak out, and the conviction and kindness to speak out. Not everyone could speak out in the face of bad things...fear held people back often, they remained passive. That was something you’d learnt every time you’d been bullied in a hallway, the other students averting their gaze and refusing to get involved. 

So you doubted such a person would ever arrive in all your years of schooling, you expected to be alone, undefended for that time...until the new kid showed up. He was that kid that everyone gossiped about the first week. He’d gotten into fights. He’d apparently been in trouble with the police (you doubted that one though, it sounded far too far-fetched the way Allison told it in Maths). All the girls swooned over him. All the boys were getting aggravated over him, complaining about the attention he received.

And still you were receiving the same treatment. Not even the new kid could distract people from you, from their seemingly never ending need to hurt you. Each day was a waiting game. What would be said today? Who would say it? How long would you have to listen to it for? 

So when Brett cornered you near you locker at lunch time you didn’t expect anything less than you usual dealt with. You weren’t prepared, you never were, but you’d gotten used to it enough to hide how much it actually affected you.

“Hey, little Miss Piggy” It’s a sneer the type of sneer that’s too close for comfort and no matter how often this happened, no matter that they’d never laid a hand on you, being trapped between lockers and an aggressive bully never made you feel safe, never failed to make you feel scared. You hide it well.

“Go away, Brett.” You just want him to leave you alone. You want him to go back to making out with his girlfriend behind the bleachers and leave you be. You don’t want to deal with him today. You don’t want to deal with him ever. You just want to be left alone. To be happy. Why did they feel it was right to do this? 

“Don’t. Tell. Me. To. Go. Away.” Each word is punctuated by his palm slamming against the locker by your head and you can’t help the jump each time, or the fear because what if one day they decide name calling isn’t enough? 

“Leave her alone, man.” It’s nonchalant, casual. The new kid, leather jacket, gelled hair, the beginnings of facial hair, is leaning against the lockers across from you and Brett. He seems too casual for someone telling Brett to back off. For someone questioning one of the meanest people in school. 

You’d seen the new kid around of course. The rumours that he was attractive were true. You somewhat believed the rumours that he got into fights as well. But you never thought he’d be the one person to say no. To step in. 

“What did you say?” But it has Brett pulling away from you to confront the other guy instead and you can breathe deep for the first time because he’s not on you. But that doesn’t remove the fear that he’s going to hurt the person who tried to help you.

“I said leave her alone or are you stupid as well ugly?” There was an odd feeling in your chest watching it all unfold. Partially that feeling of worry, fear, that the person to help would be the person to get hurt and partially a warm feeling at the thought that this person decided to help. An appreciation as it were. 

Brett didn’t say anything else, it had gone past speaking and you couldn’t look when you knew he was going to try and hit out at the new boy, instead you looked away and waited for the sounds. Except there wasn’t a sound of pain from the new voice, there was only the sound of scuffling, a body being pushed against a locker and a crying mewl from the voice that always taunted you.

“You go near her again and i’ll do worse than shove you against a locker. Understand?” You looked back to the scene to see Brett cowering against a locker and there was that delicious feeling of recompense, that he got his dues. It was strangely enjoyable to watch him run away with a tail between his legs, but it also made this new boy so intimidating. If he wanted to he could do worse than Brett ever had. 

“You okay?” His features softened when he walked over to you, they weren’t hard and angry anymore, rather he looked concerned and like he was worried you’d run away. You weren’t sure if you could run away from the first person to look out for you.

“Yeah...thank you...” Your voice is quiet, it’s always quiet, people don’t treat you well normally and making yourself less noticeably always worked. But he’s looking at you with such intensity that it scares you, he’s noticed you, he’s taken an active interest and it’s intimidating. You wrap your arms around your thick waist and hope that this interest is going to be a good thing and not a bad thing. 

“My names Bucky...does that happen often?” For someone that everyone said was a bad guy, a criminal, a rough around the edges person he really wasn’t. He was talking to you so gently that you thought he couldn’t possibly be bad. Maybe rough when he needed to be like with Brett, but he couldn’t be bad. 

“Y/N...and yeah, all the time.”

“Well not when i’m around, you want to eat lunch together?” You knew you were going to like Bucky, you knew you were going to spend all your time with him...because he seemed to care and he seemed nice and he just promised to look out for you. No one had ever done that before.

“I’d like that...”


End file.
